When’s the last time you asked a robot to do something for you? I can tell you I do it almost constantly. My most consulted robot lives in a mainframe somewhere in the great Google warehouse in the sky. At least, I like to think so. Artificial intelligence has beenRead More →
To celebrate her forthcoming collection, Shit Cassandra Saw — available January 11 from Penguin Books — MetaStellar’s Long Lost Friends YouTube segment hosts sat down with writer Gwen E. Kirby for an interview.Read More →
The winners for the Hugo Awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book were announced at DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, on December 18th, 2021, in Washington, D.C.Read More →
I subscribe to dozens of writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification.Read More →
You can now get four months of Kindle Unlimited for $4 a month — it’s normally $10 a month. Amazon also has great deals right now on Kindle devices.Read More →
The Halo video game series is all about protecting Earth from alien invaders in the 26th century. A teaser trailer has just dropped for the Paramount+ TV series, expected to hit the streaming service sometime next year, and it seems to indicate that the show will focus on characters.Read More →
In a plan straight out of a sci-fi asteroid disaster movie, NASA will try to push an asteroid off-course by crashing a spaceship into it.Read More →
JPL and NASA need your help to identify objects on Mars so that the future Mars land rovers will have an easier time getting around.Read More →
MetaStellar’s open submission period for fall 2021 has officially ended. This was our best cycle for submissions yet, receiving over 400 stories in 31 days.Read More →
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook changing its name to Meta in order to focus on the metaverse. Facebook itself will remain, but will now be just one brand in the Meta portfolio, alongside Instagram and WhatsApp. Read More →
Blue Origin, Boeing and Sierra Space join forces on new commercial space station, Orbital Reef, to be operational the second half of this decade.Read More →
The trailer for the documentary Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time, has just been released. The documentary, follows the science fiction writer from 1982 until his death in 2007, and is based on the 25-year friendship between the author and filmmaker Robert Weide.Read More →
Earlier today, actor William Shatner — who played Star Trek’s iconic Captain Kirk on television and in the movies — became the oldest person to ever go to space and helped demonstrate that power of sci-fi to inspire space exploration.Read More →
The fall submission cycle for original speculative fiction begins on October 1 and closes at midnight on October 31. Read More →
The votes for the annual Dragon Awards are in, and Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary won for best sci-fi novel, and Jim Butcher’s Battle Ground for best fantasy novel.Read More →
If you’re planning to write a novel during this year’s National Novel Writing Month, you can announce it now.Read More →
Dragon Con is the first week of September this year in Atlanta but whether or not you plan to attend the massive multimedia convention you can still vote in the Dragon Awards.Read More →
The Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association’s poetry contest’s deadline is August 31, 2021.Read More →
The finalists for the 2021 World Fantasy Awards have been announced, including Lifetime Achievement recipients Megan Lindholm and Howard Waldrop.Read More →
E. M. Foner tries out Amazon’s Kindle Vella, a new publishing option for episodic fiction, and tells us what he thinks about the platform.Read More →
The Live Remote VEX Robotics World Championship had broken the Guinness World Record as the largest online robot championship.Read More →
Last Saturday, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announced the winners of the 56th Nebula Awards.Read More →
NavyCon, the premier science fiction and national security conference, returns for its fourth edition inviting speakers from a variety of backgrounds, including all five branches of the service, as well as civilian academia and science fiction fandom, to present on topics within the theme of national security in transition.Read More →
On May 9, Amazon pulled the Star Wars novel “Heart of the Jedi,” from sale on its online retailer. While there is no official statement from Amazon or Lucasfilm as to the matter, one can hypothesize that Disney took action against the selling of an unauthorized Star Wars book.Read More →
Do you want Luke Skywalker’s bionic hand? Thanks to 3D printing technology, soon you will be able to have it.Read More →
The results of MetaStellar’s first submission cycle of 2021 are in, and we at MetaStellar are thrilled to announce the success of our second original fiction submission cycle.Read More →
Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine is now in Kindle Unlimited, which means that if you’re a member, you can read this magazine at no additional cost.Read More →
Contrary to what sci-fi literature has been telling us for the past several decades, humans have not been able to fly on another planet until yesterday.Read More →
Finalists for the Hugo Awards, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book were announced by DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention today in a YouTube video.Read More →
While it is marketed to “Space Operations Professionals,” it is also a cool opportunity to get some insight into how today’s space industry works.Read More →
Smartphones touch nearly every facet of our lives. The transformative effect of smart glasses can be equally dramatic, experts say.Read More →
The spring flash fiction submission cycle opens today. Stories can be submitted anytime from now until April 1, 2021.Read More →
Hayley Arceneaux will become the first astronaut with a prosthetic limb when she goes into space later this year on a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission.Read More →
The British Fantasy Society announced the winners of the 2020 British Fantasy Awards yesterday, and RJ Barker’s The Bone Ships was selected as the best fantasy novel of the year.Read More →
On Feb. 11, 2021, the sixth International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the U.S. Postal Service issued a new Forever stamp to honor Chien-Shiung Wu, one of the most influential nuclear physicists of the 20th century.Read More →
NASA has been releasing photos as they arrive from Mars and they are awesome.Read More →
On Feb. 18, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission will be arriving at the red planet, and hopefully will place the Perseverance Rover on the surface.Read More →
To understand ourselves and our place in the universe, “we should have humility but also self-respect,” the physicist writes in a new book.Read More →
The U. S. Postal Service announced its new lineup of stamps for 2021, and sci-fi legend Ursula K. Le Guin is the latest addition to the Literary Arts series.Read More →
Nalo Hopkinson is the first black woman to win the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for her lifetime achievements in science fiction and fantasy writing.Read More →
Galactic Civilizations 3 is free from Epic this week By Maria Korolov Every Thursday, Epic offers a PC game for free. Yesterday that was Stardock Games’ Galactic Civilizations 3, a critically-acclaimed, popular game that’s like Sid Meier’s Civilization, but in space. Other differences include the fact that you can playRead More →
If you’re hoping or fearing that new technology can put you in a Matrix-style virtual environment — it’s not happening in 2021, judging by what we saw at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.Read More →
Climate-focused short story contest offers $8,700 in prizes By Maria Korolov Grist, a publication that focuses on climate, sustainability and social justice has announced a contest for short stories that focus on climate change. Entry is free, the deadline is April 12, and the short stories should be between 3,000Read More →
Experts: Ethics a must in AI By Alex Korolov Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives, both in the workplace and at home. Some AI experts are stressing the need to focus on making AI ethical and keeping it human friendly. Bias in programming, security concerns,Read More →
Best AI startups of 2020 By Jennifer Vickery The global artificial intelligence market is expected to grow by 46.2% from 2019 to 2025. That type of growth can’t be matched by almost any other industry in the world. Artificial intelligence solutions are particularly relevant for the IT, healthcare, automotive, andRead More →
Wondering what some of your favorite fantasy, horror, and sci-fi writers have been up to on Instagram? Here’s a short but sweet list of popular speculative fiction author’s Instagram accounts.Read More →
AI expert: Don’t fear the robot apocalypse By Alex Korolov With talks of large companies investing in AI weapons, brain-chips being developed to enhance soldiers, and the head of the British armed forces saying that robot soldiers could make up a quarter of the army by the 2030s, people mightRead More →
Around 35 percent of businesses plan on implementing virtual or augmented reality technology in 2021 according to a recently published research report.Read More →
Iceland will celebrate New Year’s Eve with a live and fully virtual concert with Northern Lights and fireworks guaranteed.Read More →